Sleeping on your back?

[capretta]

Are you avoiding sleeping on your back? I sometimes fall asleep on my back, though I rarely stay that way for very long. I was just reading that "This can cause problems with backaches, breathing, digestive system, hemorrhoids, low blood pressure and decrease in circulation to your heart and your baby." But I wonder how much it matters at this stage (16wks) and, since it's getting less and less comfortable, is it really something that I have to worry about now or will I just stop doing it naturally? How much harm this really did to pregnant women before they had the APA to tell them not to do it?

[StephandOwen]

I've heard to stop at 4 months. I'm 14 weeks and haven't stopped, but i'm just not very comfortable in that position. I'm mostly sleeping on my side with a body pillow under my belly and between my legs.

[~pi]

This was a big concern for me in my first pregnancy, as I roll around a lot in my sleep and have very little control over what position I sleep in. Everyone I talked to about this, from midwives to academic OBs, said that if being on my back was comfortable for me and didn't make me feel dizzy, it was fine. I did find that as the pregnancy progressed, I was more comfortable on my side, preferably with a great big body pillow.

[Wendy5]

My doctor told me that I can. He also said that sleeping on your left side is no different than the right. He said that it is an old wives tale that you can't. IDK.  I was sleeping with a Boppy body pillow,(which I bought because I thought we had to sleep on side) thinking it would be a healthier allignment but was waking up with my knees throbbing in pain......for weeks. I stopped using it and the pain is gone!!!!!! Amazing!  I think we are all different. Back sleeping became uncomfortable for me weeks and weeks ago. Short of breath and dizzy.